Speed
by FishyFloat
Summary: The guys are in trouble and Nosedive needs to get to them ASAP! But, fate has other ideas.


**AN:** Earlier this week, 9/6/2016 was the 20th anniversary of the first MD:TAS episode airing! So, in celebration, I give you another short. It's not the story I'd intended on posting for the anniversary, but I still think you'll like it. Inspired by something that happened to me last Friday…

* * *

Nosedive groaned at the emergency beeping coming from his comm.

"Sorry guys," he stood up from the movie seat and began edging his way towards the aisle. "The world needs saving."

"Dude!" Thrash threw popcorn at him. "Not again!"

Nosedive shrugged.

"Better than the alternative." No way was he going to let some wacko try to take over the world. Been there, done that, got the scars.

As soon as he was out of the theater and heading towards the lobby, he answered the beeping.

"Yo! What's the sitch?" He dodged a family while running towards the door and ultimately his bike.

"Construction equipment at Cypress and Fifth is attacking the crew," his brother explained. "Dr. Droid's got to be behind this."

"On the way!" The moment he was outside, he hit the quick change on his comm. Gold light enveloped him and vanished to reveal his armor.

With a wild yell, he jumped onto his bike, strapped his helmet in place, and tore out of the parking lot.

Despite his unchecked speed and the urgency of getting to his team, Nosedive had total control of his motorcycle. He wove in and out of traffic, often resorting to using the shoulder. It wasn't until he passed the silver Ford Taurus with "APD" printed on the side that he realized it was a cop car.

The police vehicle pulled out of traffic and onto the shoulder, chasing after him with lights flashing and sirens howling.

"I do _not_ have time for this," Nosedive muttered. He picked up speed, hoping the police would get the message and leave him alone. Even at 120 miles per hour, the police didn't back down. If anything, the sirens sounded angrier.

He glanced at the side view mirror before shaking his head and slowing down. As much as he hated it, he was the one the youngest fans looked up to and he had to be a good example for them. They did not need to see him on the news with a high speed chase that ended up in him leading a clueless and pissed off officer right into a war zone.

He came to a stop and parked the bike while leaving the engine running. Sitting up, he drummed his fingers on his thigh in irritation while waiting for the officer to come over to him.

"Ah, shit." He glanced over to the holster on his left thigh. "Shit, shit, shit, shit." It probably wasn't a good idea to have weapons out in the open like that, especially considering he didn't have his concealed carry paperwork on him or in the bike's storage compartment. Maybe the cop wouldn't notice?

A black clad, city police officer walked up to him, clipboard in one hand and the other on the holstered gun at his hip. He did not look pleased.

"Hey, officer." He smiled, hoping he'd be in a good mood. "Nice day we're having."

"Not for you it isn't." The badge on his left breast identified him as Officer J. Dodd. "There a reason you're going so fast?"

"Oh, you know, super villains trying to take over the world." He shrugged as if it was just any other day; which, for him, it was. "Heard there's some trouble at the construction site about five minutes from here. My team's already there trying to take care of the runaway construction equipment and they totally can't do this without me. So, if you don't mind, I'll just be on my way."

"Not so fast, ducky." He narrowed his eyes. "License and proof of insurance."

"Uh, yeah," Nosedive nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "Funny thing. I don't have my license on me."

The officer's frown deepened and he wrote something on his clipboard. He didn't bother looking up before asking, "How about insurance?"

"Yeah…" He nodded. "Listen, I wasn't kidding when I said I've got to get to my team. Why don't you call Captain Klegghorn and he'll explain things. We can even take care of this later! No big."

"Or we can take care of it now." His gaze somehow managed to grow even harder. Geeze, even Mallory would flinch under that look! "Proof of insurance?"

"Fine," Nosedive groaned in frustration. "I'm just going to get off the bike real quick." He swung his leg over, keeping the motorcycle between himself Officer Dodd. Maybe that would help hide the puck blasters. He lifted the seat and pulled out the packet with the registration and proof of insurance in it. Removing the proper papers, he handed them over.

"This vehicle licensed to you?" He didn't look up while reading over the papers.

"Yes." Good thing he had his bike and didn't borrow one of the other's!

"Name and social security number?"

"Nosedive Flashblade and I don't have a social security number. Come on, dude. Seriously? You don't know who I am?" He'd always laughed at celebrities who pulled that stunt to get a table at an exclusive restaurant or tickets to games; but, seriously, there were only six alien ducks on the planet! And they had a reputation with the police station to boot. This asshat know exactly who he was.

"Give me your ID and I won't have to have them look you up back at the station."

"I already told you, I don't have my ID! It's in my other pants!" And he wasn't about to change out of his armor. He'd already used the quick change once; he couldn't count on being able to retrieve his armor again without a fresh beacon.

"Address?"

"It's on the registration!" This was ridiculous. If he didn't know the cop would just follow him into danger, he'd drive off and leave him in the dust. Wait a minute… He couldn't get a ticket! They had diplomatic immunity!

"Dude you can't give me a ticket."

"Just cause you're rich and famous doesn't get you out of it. I clocked you going one-thirty in a forty-five zone."

"Uh, it was one-twenty and I've got diplomatic immunity. So, if you'll just give me my papers back, I'll be on my way."

"Sit tight." He clipped the insurance and registration papers to his board and started heading back towards the cruiser.

"Ugh!" Duke had asked Phil about the whole diplomatic immunity thing back when they'd first appeared. Phil had loved the idea of presenting them to the world as ambassadors from another universe and pulled some major strings to make it happen. Of course, that'd involved a visit with the president and sharing a little more information about why they were here with the US government than they'd been comfortable with. At least the stunt and worked and they'd been granted diplomatic status rather than ending up in some mad scientist's lab. Well, there had been that one time with Dr. Praetorius; but, that didn't really count. Did it?

Nosedive sat back on the motorcycle and waited. Honestly, he could just drive off and there wasn't a thing Officer Todd could do. He looked over his shoulder and saw the officer sitting in his cruiser, talking over the radio. He glanced at the time on his comm. Then he checked the GPS locations of his team. They were all at the construction site. Another check on the cruiser and Officer Dodd hadn't budged yet.

Come on! Could he take any longer? It's not like he could be issued a ticket any way.

Officer Dodd looked up and saw Nosedive watching him. He held up a finger to tell him to wait and continued speaking into the radio.

Nosedive played with the idea of contacting Grin and telling about the delay. Then again, he didn't want to distract them at a bad moment. Grin's strength would certainly be in play if they were having to disable construction equipment. Maybe he should tell Mallory? Yeah, right. Let her yell at him for being stupid. Nope. No chance he'd bother Wildwing right now; he needed to focus on creating plans and directing everyone. Tanya would certainly be working to figure out how Droid was controlling the machines this time. Duke would only tell him to blow off the cop and get his tailfeathers over there. He just hoped they didn't need him and nobody got hurt.

Okay. That's it. Nosedive stood and walked over to the cruiser. He rested his crossed forearms over the open door and looked down at Officer Dodd.

"So, like, are you going to give me this ticket sometime today or what?"

"Sir, go back to your motorcycle and wait there." Coppy-boy didn't look none too happy to have someone approaching his vehicle.

"Figured I'd save you a trip."

"I said go back to your vehicle."

"Fine!" He threw his hands up and walked back to his motorcycle. Leaning on it, he crossed his arms and stared through the cruiser windshield.

Finally, after an eternity, Officer Dodd emerged from the silver car and approached, clipboard in hand.

"I've cited you for reckless driving, improper lane use, going over the limit, speed over a hundred, illegal passing, and evading an officer. You can pay your fines at City Hall, second floor. If you want to contest the ticket, your court date is ten days from today, nine a.m." He handed over the pink slip of paper along with his registration and insurance papers. "Don't speed again."

"Fat chance." Nosedive took the papers, shoved them in the under-seat storage, and jumped back on the bike. He popped a wheelie as he sped off again, this time pushing the motorcycle to its limit. By the time Officer Dodd managed to get back in his cruiser, Nosedive knew he'd be way out of sight and the cop wouldn't be able to catch up.

0000

Things were far too quiet as he turned onto Cypress. If there was one thing his team was not in the middle of a battle, it was quiet. They were pretty destructive too. Confused, he drew a launcher and steered with balance and one hand. He kept a sharp eye out for ambush or signs that the others might have been captured.

He drove the motorcycle right into the construction zone, only to find a crane on its side with the long arm broken off. A bulldozer had somehow managed to end up on the third floor of the steel-framed building. And Grin was climbing out of a smoking crater near a gray, metal trailer that was probably the foreman's office.

Maniacal laughing from above taunted them.

"You fail again, you pathetic poultry!" Dr. Droid's head was once again flying off to who knew where.

"Oh, no you don't!" He took aim and shot a net out at the flying head. It neatly landed over Droid's head but didn't stop his upwards journey. "I'm beginning to understand why Mallory hates machines," he muttered as he watched his foe escape.

"Nice shot, baby bro." Wildwing walked up to his bike and stood with his arms crossed. "We might have managed to capture him if you'd been here."

"Oh, man," Duke chuckled. "You missed out on one hell of a fight."

"Yeah…" He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment before turning off the bike and dismounting. "Sorry about that. I was trying to get here!"

Mallory limped over, one arm over Tanya's shoulder.

"Where were you!" The redhead was not in a good mood.

"I kinda sorta got a speeding ticket." He slurred the last words together, volume trailing off.

"Hm." Duke shrugged.

"How fast were you going?" Wildwing asked, the Mask making him look angrier than he probably was.

"One-twenty. He ticketed me for one-thirty! Dude wouldn't even listen when I tried to explain the whole diplomatic immunity thing!"

"Just drive off next time," Duke suggested. "It's what I usually do."

"Wait," Mallory stared hard at the former thief. "How many tickets have you gotten out of?"

"Stopped counting."

"Just give it to Phil to deal with." Wildwing finally uncrossed his arms and put one hand on Nosedive's shoulder. "And next time," he paused, "I don't know. Use your best judgment on if you should get here or not. We were able to handle it this time; but, we won't always be so lucky." He then moved towards where the Migrator was parked, the rest of the team following.

Nosedive debated driving back solo, then decided he'd rather hear what all happened. Putting the bike in neutral, he caught up with the others and walked back with them. He could tie it down in the Migrator. After all, the next best thing to being victorious in battle was listening to the heroes who had done the fighting.


End file.
